SINGAPORE on Wednesday rejected calls to abolish executions, saying the death penalty is still necessary to deter serious crimes despite legal reforms designed to lessen its use.Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who is also minister for home affairs, said abolishing hanging would send the wrong signal to potential criminals.Singapore has...Read more http://deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com/2012/11/singapore-upholds-mandatory-death.html14
Nov
2012
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono defended on Friday his decision to grant clemency to drug convict Meirika Franola, who was found to still be running a drug business from her prison cell after the president commuted her death sentence.Yudhoyono reiterated a previous statement made by the
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey should consider lifting its ban on capital punishment, a move that may deal a further blow to its stalled European Union membership bid."In the face of killings, if needed the death penalty should be brought back to the table," Erdogan said on his13
Nov
2012
Iran Human Rights, November 12: One prisoner was hanged in Ardebil (northwestern Iran) early this morning.According to the official website of the Iranian judiciary in Ardebil, a prisoner, whose name was not mentioned, was hanged early this morning in Ardebil Prison. The prisoner was convicted of12
Nov
2012
Iran Human Rights, November 11: One prisoner was hanged in the Isfahan central prison early this morning, reported the Iranian state media.According to the Tebyan news, the man, who was not identified by name, was convicted of possession of 64 kilograms of crack.Earlier this week 23 prisoners09
Nov
2012
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Thursday beheaded a Pakistani national convicted of trying to smuggle drugs into the kingdom, the interior ministry announced.Mnawar Khan was arrested at King Khaled International airport in Riyadh as he was trying to “smuggle an amount of heroin found in his body,” said a09
Nov
2012
FREED mum-of-6 Emma Louise L'Aiguille says she will never take life for granted and is desperate to be reunited with her kids after escaping the death penalty in Malaysia.Ms L'Aiguille's 4-month jail nightmare ended today, when prosecutors stunningly dropped drug trafficking charges against09
Nov
2012
(Archive picture)Iran Human Rights, November 8: Seven prisoners were hanged in Shiraz (southern Iran) today Thursday November 8, reported the Iranian state media. According to the official reports one prisoner was also hanged in the prison of Mashhad (northwestern Iran) yesterday.15 other07
Nov
2012
Iran Human Rights, November 7: According to the Iranian state media 14 prisoners were executed in two Iranian cities of Tehran and Shiraz early this morning.The state run news agency Mehr reported that four prisoners were hanged publicly in the Koozeh-Gari Square of Shiraz (southern Iran). All the
It’s been more than a decade since Pennsylvania executed an inmate on death row. Although another execution is scheduled for Thursday, it’s possible the execution will not happen and that the chamber at Rockview State Prison will remain empty for some time to come.There’s a little-known 6-year-oldThe special envoy for Bulgaria in Malaysia, Angel Orbetsov, will try to persuade local authorities for more leniency in the case of the 2 Bulgarians arrested on drug trafficking charges and sentenced by a Malaysian court to death by hanging.On May 18, 2011, Bulgarian nationals Georgi Georgiev04
Nov
2012
The World Medical Association has strengthened its opposition to capital punishment with a resolution at its recent conference in Bangkok that "physicians will not facilitate the importation or prescription of drugs for execution."It also reaffirmed previous resolutions that "it is unethical for14
Nov
2012
Brett HartmanOhio on Tuesday executed a condemned killer who claimed he was innocent of stabbing a woman 138 times, slitting her throat and cutting off her hands.The time of death for Brett Hartman was 10:34, said warden Donald Morgan of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville."I'm
Iran Human Rights, November 13: The Iranian state media has reported the hanging of two prisoners.The official website of the Iranian judiciary in the province of Fars (southern Iran) has reported the public hanging of one prisoner, identified as F. B., in the town of Neyriz (south of Shiraz) on13
Nov
2012
Execution chamberat San Quentin Prison, CAThe death penalty in California survived by a narrow vote on November 6, but around the country the signs are clear that capital punishment is slowly on the way out. Even in California, the close defeat of the referendum to repeal the death penalty marks a12
Nov
2012
Speaker Rebecca Kadaga has said 2009's Anti-Homosexuality Bill will become law by the end of 2012.Uganda will officially pass the ‘Kill The Gays’ bill at the end of this year despite international criticism.Speaker Rebecca Kadaga said the anti-gay bill will become law by December since most09
Nov
2012
Sharon KellerTexas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller has been re-elected.Keller defeated defense attorney Keith Hampton, her Democratic challenger.The Republican had earned the nickname "Killer Keller" by death penalty opponents after she refused an after-hours appeal by a09
Nov
2012
Execution chamber atTokyo Detention CenterThe exoneration of a Nepalese man who served 15 years in a Japanese jail for a murder he did not commit raises questions about the judicial system in a country that refuses to scrap the death penalty.The Tokyo High Court on Wednesday finally acquitted08
Nov
2012
Pennsylvania is set to become the second state to kill a prisoner using so-called ‘DIY drugs’ – produced in a compounding pharmacy of the same type thought to be responsible for the recent meningitis outbreak in the US.The state is planning to execute Hubert Michael today [Thursday 8 November]07
Nov
2012
California voters on Tuesday [Nov. 6, 2012] rejected a ballot measure that would have repealed the state's death penalty.Proposition 34 lost by about 6 percentage points, dimming the hopes of death penalty opponents who were trying to abolish the death penalty in California and clear the largestAmid doubts about the ruling party’s appetite for the ongoing European Union membership process and ten years after its abolition represented the most crucial step in the process, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has put the death penalty back on the agenda, suggesting that a majority of the
With an increase in drug-related cases in the Kingdom, the anti-narcotics directorate has announced harsher penalties for drug smugglers, peddlers and abusers in its effort to curb the spread of the phenomenon.However, male and female students with drug habits will be exempted from the harsh
Khao Bin Central Prison’s ‘special zone’At Khao Bin Central Prison in Ratchaburi, we expected to find incorrigible drug lords - but met instead the poor, the disaffected and the foreign.At 2 security checkpoints visitors are frisked and scanned with metal detectors. No sharp objects, no liquidsWith international human rights groups and local activists calling for an end to the death penalty for drug-related crimes, Singapore may be on the verge of amending its mandatory sentencing for drug criminals.It comes after massive pressure has been put on the city-state, the only developedZapanta needs blood money by Wednesday to be spared death penalty.Manila: A Filipino family will raise P55 million (Dh4.58 million) to serve as blood money to atone for the killing of a Sudanese national in Saudi Arabia in 2009, a local paper said.“I have prepared a letter to [Saudi Arabia’s]
The small flat in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, is dimly lit. A few women stand around waiting. About 30 minutes later, a group of men come in with bags, filled to the brim with pills. The women quickly take out a few bags and place them underneath panels in their carriers. This is the drug trade at11
Nov
2012
Baghdad, Nov 11 (IANS) Iraq Sunday executed 10 people, including an Egyptian, over terror charges, despite international calls not to carry out the executions.Iraq executions have sparked calls by the UN, European Union and human rights groups to abolish the capital punishment, criticizing theThe government is working overtime to raise P55 million in blood money in order to save the life of a Filipino overseas worker convicted for the murder with robbery of a Sudanese national in Saudi Arabia.A document obtained by the Philippine Daily Inquirer showed that Joselito Zapanta has only09
Nov
2012
Mario SwainHuntsville, TX - A man described as a fledgling serial killer by prosecutors has been executed in Texas.Thirty-three-year-old Mario Swain received a lethal injection Thursday evening for an East Texas woman's slaying during a break-in at her home a decade ago.Lola Nixon of
A Libyan military court on Wednesday ordered the execution of five army officers, who were being tried in absentia, on charges of indiscriminate shelling of civilians and of rape during the 2011 conflict.The court in the eastern city of Benghazi also handed down 10-year prison terms to three07
Nov
2012
Garry Thomas AllenMcALESTER, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma inmate who was convicted of the 1986 murder of his fiancee was executed Tuesday evening despite claims that he was insane and ineligible for the death penalty.Garry Thomas Allen, 56, was given a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in
Chinese police lead a condemned maninto a special execution vanto be put to death. (AFP/Getty Images)China is the world’s leader in capital punishment, executing “thousands” every year, according to Amnesty International’s best guess of the officially secret statistic. A U.S.-based NGO estimates
In March, 3 death-row inmates were executed under the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) government for the first time in 20 months. Executions took place in the months of August and September as well. The justice ministers who ordered the executions said that it was their duty, and indeed, according04
Nov
2012
250 Executions Under Governor Rick PerrySource: The Texas TribuneWednesday's execution of Donnie Lee Roberts Jr., 41, for the 2003 shooting death of a Polk County woman marked the 250th execution during Gov. Rick Perry’s tenure. It is, by far, the largest number of executions under any recent